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Know Your Rights

The adage “knowledge is power” is certainly true when it comes to protecting your rights. The NYCLU has an extensive library of “Know Your Rights” materials to help New Yorkers understand their rights and react effectively when their rights are under threat.

LGBT Rights

Palm Card: Know Your Rights: LGBTQ Rights in Schools (2011)

Many school officials don’t know that the law requires them to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning students. Our palm card educates students about their legal rights and informs about them what to do if their school is treating them or other students unfairly.

Know Your Rights: Frequently Asked Questions about New York’s Marriage Equality Act (2011)

Now that same-sex couples have the freedom to marry in New York, the NYCLU has compiled a guide to answer some frequently asked questions about the new law. Please note: This brief overview is not intended to provide individualized legal advice.
 

 

Youth and Students Rights

Palm Card: Know Your Rights When Facing a Suspension (2010)

Our state constitution guarantees the right to a public education. A suspension takes away that right for a period of time, but but schools must follow rules when suspending a student. This guide will help you understand those rules, and protect your right to an education.
 
 

Palm Card: No Student Left Unrecruited? Military Recruitment and Students’ Rights (English and Spanish) (2010)

This palm card helps students, parents, educators, and advocates understand their rights and obligations when it comes to military recruitment. It also provides two detachable forms to help students opt out of recruiting databases and keep their information private from recruiters.

Palm Card: Know Your Rights with Police in Schools (2011)

Students have the right to feel safe and secure in their schools. Students also have certain legal rights when interacting with police personnel who are charged with securing their safety. This card tries to answer students’ most common questions about their rights when interacting with school safety officers.

Palm Card: Know Your Rights: LGBTQ Rights in Schools (2011)

Many school officials don’t know that the law requires them to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning students. Our palm card educates students about their legal rights and informs about them what to do if their school is treating them or other students unfairly.

Palm Card: Your Rights to Sexual Health Services (English, Spanish, Chinese, & Korean) (2006)

If you are 17 or younger, you have the right to get sexual health services on your own in New York.
 

Booklet: The Rights Of Pregnant And Parenting Teens (2006)

If you’re a pregnant or parenting teen you have the right to stay in school, the right to consent on your own to all health care for yourself and your child, and many other important rights and liberties.
 

Poster: Your Rights to Sexual Health Services (2007)

If you are 17 or younger, you have the right to get sexual health services on your own in New York. You can get birth control (like condoms & the Pill), emergency contraception (the “morning after pill”), pregnancy tests and prenatal care, sexually trasmitted infection (STI) tests and care, HIV tests, abortion services, and sexual assault care.

Reference Card: Minors And Mental Health Care (2004)

Minors in New York State can access mental health care without parental involvement under many circumstances. To give informed consent, a patient must be able to understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of a proposed treatment, including its risks, benefits and alternatives, and to reach an informed decision.
 

 
 

Police Accountability and Criminal Justice Reform

Know Your Rights: Your Right to an Attorney If You’re Arrested and Accused of a Crime (2014)

Today, if you are accused of a crime, you have the right to retain an attorney. Under the U.S. Constitution and the New York State Constitution, if you cannot afford an attorney, a public defense attorney should be provided for you at the expense of the state.

Palm Card: Know Your Rights with Police in Schools (2011)

Students have the right to feel safe and secure in their schools. Students also have certain legal rights when interacting with police personnel who are charged with securing their safety. This card tries to answer students’ most common questions about their rights when interacting with school safety officers.

Palm Card: What to Do If You’re Stopped by the Police (English and Spanish) (2011)

We all recognize the need for effective law enforcement, but we should also understand our own rights and responsibilities — especially in our interactions with the police. This palm card explains what to do if you are stopped, arrested, or injured in your encounter with the police, and how to file a complaint.

Reproductive Rights

Your Breastfeeding Rights In New York

This publication outlines your rights while breastfeeding in New York, including your rights in the hospital, in public, and at work.
 
 
 

Palm Card: Your Rights to Sexual Health Services (English, Spanish, Chinese, & Korean) (2006)

If you are 17 or younger, you have the right to get sexual health services on your own in New York.
 
 

Palm Card: Your Rights As A Pregnant Or Parenting Teen (2007)

If you think you may be pregnant, you have the right to confidential pregnancy testing. No one can tell your parents or anyone else about the results unless you say it’s okay. No one can force you to take a pregnancy test, an STD test, or an HIV/AIDS test without your permission.

Booklet: The Rights Of Pregnant And Parenting Teens (2006)

If you’re a pregnant or parenting teen you have the right to stay in school, the right to consent on your own to all health care for yourself and your child, and many other important rights and liberties.

Reference Card: Child Health Plus And Reproductive Health Benefits (2000)

HP covers a full range of reproductive health care including abortion. Covered reproductive health services include (but are not limited to): Emergency Contraception , Abortion, diagnosis and treatment, HIV testing and treatment, Screening for pregnancy, cervical cancer, breast disease, anemia, pelvic problems, hypertension, etc., and Prenatal care, labor, and delivery.

 
 

Immigrants’ Rights

Know Your Rights: What to Do if You’re Stopped by Immigration Officers (2012)

This card explains your rights when you are in contact with immigration enforcement officers in New York State. The information in this card applies to encounters with immigration officers inside the United States, including encounters with immigration officers on domestic trains and buses or in your local community, and encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and border patrol agents after you have been stopped by local police.

Immigrants’ Rights are Human Rights: Universal Guarantees of Rights to All People (2009)

Over the past 13 years, we have witnessed a series of attacks on the basic rights and freedoms of America’s immigrants. Beginning with the Clinton administration’s support for two far-reaching and punitive immigration reform bills in 1996, and continuing with the Bush administration’s overzealous response to the Sept. 11 attacks, immigrants in the United States have faced assaults on their liberty, dignity and equality.

 

Protest Rights

Palm Card: Know Your Rights: Demonstrating in New York City (2011)

New Yorkers have the right to engage in peaceful protest, but the city can and does impose certain restrictions on protest activities. This brochure is intended to inform New Yorkers of those basic rules.

 
 

Voting Rights

2008 New York Voter Empowerment Card

This card explains policies for voting in New York State, including registration deadlines, moving, name changes, students, homeless, the incarcerated, absentee ballots, and conduct at polling places.
 
 

 

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